The sixteenth session of Regional Association II (RA II-16)

13-02-2017

The National Center of Meteorology and Seismology on February 4th.

At the kind invitation of the Government of the United Arab Emirates, the sixteenth session of Regional Association II (RA II-16) will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 12 to 16 February 2017.

The seventh session of the Regional Conference on Management of Meteorological and Hydrological Services (RECO-7) will be held on February 10th 2017. Representatives from 36 Asian countries will participate in the conference. This conference is the technical aspect of the sixteenth session of Regional Association II (Asia) which confers about the technical and entrepreneurial issues related to the regional meteorological services. The representatives of the member states will share the success management stories in addressing the challenges which face the meteorological services generally, the performance challenges of the meteorological and climatic services and the solutions to overcome these challenges, share knowledge and to improve the process of issuing and wording the weather forecasts. The conference will discuss the regional partnerships of meteorology and sharing the information with the World Meteorological Centers (WMCs), as well as the relation and the influence of meteorology on the natural disasters. The third theme of the preparatory conference will focus on developing the potentials and the relationships with the private sector.

The 16th session agenda starts immediately after the closure of the preparatory conference. The relevant significance of the 16th session is that the representatives will vote for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the region leadership for the next four years. The opening day, 12th February, starts with the opening session in which the program activities from the regional aspect will be discussed. Many critical topics concerning Asia region will be presented such as: disaster risk reduction, resilience and prevention focusing on impact-based decision support services, climate services, action and resilience, observations and data exchange, service quality and service delivery, polar and high mountain regions, data-processing, modelling and forecasting, research, capacity development and partnerships among the meteorological services and the World Meteorology Organization (WMO).

H. E. Dr. Abdullah Ahmed Al Mandoos, Director of the National Center of Meteorology and Seismology of the United Arab Emirates and Mr. Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization met in Geneva last September to sign the host agreement for the 16th session of Regional Association II. During the ceremony, the WMO secretary-general lauded the UAE’s contribution to the global efforts for the development of meteorological science, and the improvement of its various applications. All these are aimed at protecting and ensuring the safety of human lives, reducing possible loss and damage to property through issuing warnings on extreme weather conditions and supporting the national development plans by providing the relevant climatic data and information.

Taalas also lauded the NCMS’s role in organizing and managing the meteorological regional events, referring to the successful hosting in last May for the 32nd session of the League of Arab States Permanent Committee on Meteorology (LAS/PCM) which is headed by Dr. Abdullah Almandoos with the honorary presence of Mr. Taalas.

Taalas also lauded the NCMS’s hosting of the first meeting of Arab Ministerial Council responsible for the meteorology with the presence of the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) who extended his thanks and appreciation to the UAE for hosting the 16th session of RA II.

Taalas was also confident that the NCMS is able to manage and organize the session and contribute in implementing the plans which aim at enabling the meteorological services in the region to provide good-enough weather and climate services for its citizens and enabling these services to discharge of its international obligations related to weather and climate observation in addition to immediate sharing of the data and information through the World Weather Information Services from the World Meteorology Organization (WMO).

Dr. Al Mandoos said the selection of Abu Dhabi as the venue for the session reflects the rational policy of the supreme command and its vital contributions in the various global activities. He said that the selection also reflects the confidence of the WMO in the ability of the NCMS to organize and manage such a major event which is held once every four years, as a result NCMS is assigned to, if it is elected, play an effective role in managing and organizing RA II activities for the next 4 years.